


A Terrible Beauty

by theinfamouswordsmith



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-08-10 11:06:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7842463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theinfamouswordsmith/pseuds/theinfamouswordsmith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>just something I wrote based on an old roleplay</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Terrible Beauty

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skyguyandsnips](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyguyandsnips/gifts).



“God, this has been a hell of a ride.”

It had. A week ago, Tristan and Emily had been dumped in a desert near a big military compound with about ten other people, all of whom Emily seemed to know.  Apparently, they had traveled across various universes together not long before Emily came to the Shadow Corps.  It hadn’t been willing, but whatever happened, the group seemed to get along great.  In fact, they were nearly overjoyed to see one another, almost expecting that this would happen.

Twelve hours ago, Tristan figured out why when younger versions of a bunch of people, Emily included, stumbled blind into their training area.  Everything had gotten weirder from then on out.

Tristan grinned and opened his mouth to say something when his comm bracelet beeped.  He looked at it in confusion before his eyes went wide and he started gesturing wildly.

“Emily, toss me a holo!”

She arched an eyebrow in confusion at his urgent tone.  “Now!” he snapped, and she grabbed one out of the bag at her feet and whipped it across the room.  Tristan caught it easily, without looking, and fastened it to the wall, allowing it to project the incoming call for the room to see.  The feed wavered as he typed a few codes in, then displayed a “Connecting…” message before a video popped up on screen.

Esperanza Madrugada Maya del Rio, known by most as Morning, leaned casually against a table, picking her nails.  Surrounding her were various people, most unfamiliar, a few of whom – mostly the dark-skinned teenager who glowered at the screen from the back – seemed undoubtedly threatening.  What struck the group most, however, were the two bound figures behind the table: Jennifer Harrison, a young amputee who had been on the forefront of the human resistance against the Nymea, and Justice Warner, the aging Major General of the Shadow Corps’ armed forces. 

When Morning saw the video connect, she smiled broadly. “¡Tristan, mi querido hermano! ¿Cómo has estado?”

“Morning, how did you get this network key? This is encrypted, you shouldn’t be able to contact us.”

“Oh, you know, Falcon’s a computer whiz and with Sparrow’s ability to manipulate luck and fate, it was only a matter of time before we cracked your encryption.”

Emily rose from her chair, crossing her arms. “Why do you have Justice and some teenage girl tied up behind you? Seems counterproductive to play your hand so early.”

“Leverage, duh.” Morning rolled her eyes. “We both know it’s you I want.”

“Well, I’m seeing someone, so you’re out of luck.”  Emily gave Morning an exasperated look. “Come on, Morning, get to the point.

She was distracted by a sudden movement at her side – David Harrison, who had only just now seen his sister restrained in the background, rushed up in front of Emily, anger practically radiating from his body. “…Jenny?” he choked out, staring into the screen. “How the hell-“

Jenny cut him off.  “Don’t listen to her! Dave, don’t listen to anything she says, she’s just trying to—”

Morning slammed her crowbar onto the table, inches away from Jenny’s fingers, never breaking her smile.  “Shut your mouth, before I shut it for you.”

Emily felt a hand on her shoulder as Tessa Montgomery, a Laerian scout disguised as a human and Emily’s closest friend and confidante came to stand alongside her, eyes fixed on the back of David’s neck as if she could pull him out of Morning’s target with her gaze.  _That’s David’s sister. And there, in the background – the Nymean host.  We knew her… before.  She was a friend._

Emily’s face grew darker. _It’s safe to assume the rest are our various opponents then.  The man alongside Jenny is Justice, my superior – he’s like a father to me.  Tell the others not to engage Morning.  It’s what she wants._

Tessa quickly spread the word around the telepathic network, and Emily set to calming the room.  After a few seconds, grabbing David’s hand, she looked Morning in the eye.  “Who are you? What do you want?”

It should have been impossible, but somehow Morning’s smile grew wider.  “Tessa, darling! I don’t think we’ve met.  I’m Morning, and your friends the Nymea are very, _very_ excited to see you!  And you must be David; gosh, I’ve heard so much about you: how you’re going to kill me, how you’re going to make me wish I’d never been born, et. cetera.  Your sister’s a real entertainer! Pity I’m feeding her to the swarm.”

 “Hell yes I’m going to kill you,” David snarled, “if you even _think_ about touching my sister-”

Tessa gripped his wrist, short fingernails making half-moons in the skin.  “Stop,” she whispered, “don’t let her get to you.”

Emily spoke up, giving Morning a bored look. “I get it.  You want us dead.  From what I can tell, we’ve all been dealing with a lot more than a few people wanting us dead for a long time.”

“Sure. But who’s going to stop me? Her?” Morning gestured at Tessa.  “You know she couldn’t do it alone.  The swarm would kill her before she got through the front gate.  As much as he wants to, Tessa will never let David come for his sister because she knows I’ll kill him without a second thought. If all of you decide to launch a mass attack, I’ll kill my hostages and demolish the nearest city.”

“She wouldn’t have to do it alone. You know that.”

“Ah, yes.  Your manufactured image of peace and harmony.  I know what simmers underneath that neat little façade, General.  What happened to all of you.  What she did to you.  You think I haven’t seen those massive talon scars on your back? I can put two and two together.  Either you were attacked by a massive eagle or a Laerian in her natural form tried to sink her claws into you. That doesn’t exactly foster goodwill.”

Tessa looked sick.  The younger two – Tessa and Emily, but nearly children – had fear in their eyes.  But Emily – the real one, the older one, confident and sure of herself – Emily looked angry. “It was a training accident, it’s-“

“Don’t give me that ‘training accident’ _bullshit_ ,” Morning snarled. “Those are muscle-penetrating lacerations. Nobody is that careless.”

“Fine!” Emily snapped, shocking even herself. “Jesus _Christ,_ Morning. Yes, we had a fight. We were under the control of some _very_ powerful neural implants and had absolutely no control over our actions, and we nearly killed each other.  You know what NIC shit does, my chief of personal security was the best assassin in the world with one.  Muscle-penetrating lacerations… that’s nothing.  I’ve had worse! I’ve had worse from you, when you beat me into the ground in the Aves lab, I’ve had worse from my own bodyguard under a NIC control. I’m covered in scars from ‘muscle-penetrating lacerations.’  Don’t you dare come in here and try and undermine my authority with that weak-ass reach.  I’m worth a better attempt than that.”

There was a quick beat: a second of stunned silence.

It didn’t last long. Morning was quick on her feet – some would say even quicker than Emily – and within seconds she was talking again, spinning the situation to her advantage.  “Well fine, you got over it.  Good for you.  You know, most couples don’t survive their first fight.”

Emily rolled her eyes and Morning smirked. “Oh, come on now.  You didn’t deny that you tried to kill her.”

“Wait, what’s she talking about?” David turned to Tessa, confused.

Tessa waved a hand to shush him, trying to keep Morning from noticing.  It didn’t work.  Morning’s unnaturally white teeth lit the screen up again as she zeroed in on David’s question. 

“Are you saying you don’t know, David?”

Against his better judgement, David met her gaze.  “Stop trying to psych us out, Morning. It doesn’t matter what I don’t know.”

“I think you might want to know this one. You see, Emily – you know Emily, right? Tiny, angry, blonde? -Anyway, despite having nearly been killed by her, Emily, for like… years, I think-”

“Morning, don’t.”  Emily’s tone was largely warning, but there was an edge beneath it, supported by the sudden tension across her body.  “You don’t know what you’re getting into.”

Morning bared her teeth, her expression hardly a smile any longer.  She was a shark who had caught a whiff of blood in the water – frenzied. “Well, Emily has been into your girlfriend practically since they met. As I gather, it got pretty serious for a while.”

“That’s not true.”  David didn’t really seem sure.  “I mean… Emily’s not… she has a boyfriend. And she was flirting with Luke earlier.”

“Please don’t tell lies about me in front of my people, Morning. That’s just unprofessional.” Emily’s voice shook, under the surface, barely detectable.  She brushed off the telepathic contact Tessa tried to make with her.

In the back of the room, the younger Emily had curled into herself, trying to avoid anyone’s gaze.

Morning sat on the table, articulating with her hands. “I mean, in retrospect, you think it would be obvious, especially when you met her older self.  The posture, the hair, the natural aggression…”

“Really?” Now Emily just looked annoyed. “I’m gay because I have short hair? Honestly, I truly thought we had moved past this as a global community fifty or sixty years ago.”

“No, Emily, you’re gay because you fuck girls.” Morning seemed to spit the words out, dropping a bit of her smile for the first time.

“Jesus, Morning, there are kids here.” Tristan looked horrified.

“I think these kids have heard the word ‘fuck’ before.”  Emma raised her hand as if to indicate Morning was right, eliciting a barking laugh from Lisa. “It doesn’t matter. Everyone knows the two of you aren’t actually dating – it’s, like, the worst kept secret in the Specials world.  She’s been with Juku Wang for over a year.” Morning flicked, and a photo came up on screen: Emily in a white shirt and slacks, a blazer draped over one arm, the other wrapped around a Zipeng “Juku” Wang’s waist as they talked to someone out of frame.

David seemed frustrated. “Why should I care, anyway? She can be gay if she wants, it’s not like she’s hurting anyone.”

“It’s not that she’s a lesbian, David.” Morning tilted her head back slightly, her predatory grin seeming to overtake the screen. “It’s that she and your girlfriend were together for what amounts to over a year, and neither of them ever told you.  It’s not surprising, really. They don’t tell anyone anything. They talk to each other, like they have for years, and no one else. I had just thought you were a real sport, you know? With the inside jokes, and the banter. I couldn’t handle it, honestly. If my boyfriend were hanging out with his ex, acting like they were best friends, I’d flip out.”

It had worked.  Morning knew it, and so did everyone else.  David was confused, starting to doubt himself.  He had dropped Tessa’s hand. Emily had effectively recoiled, every muscle pulled taut, and her younger self had fled the room. Everyone else was some mixture of astonished or suspicious. 

Morning couldn’t just stop there.  It was in her nature, she had to dig the knife in deeper. “Weren’t you just a little uncomfortable, David? With the fact that Emily, someone you’ve only met here, has a connection with your girlfriend that you could never have? I’m not talking about the shifts, of course – just the telepathy.  Telepathic bonds require intimacy most relationships dream of, don’t they?  And didn’t it bother you that she let you win when you were sparring earlier?”

This caught David’s ire more clearly, as he snapped back “She didn’t let me win!”

Morning laughed.  Literally, laughed out loud, as if it were the funniest thing she’d ever heard.  Emily cringed, unable to say anything.  “Of course she let you win! Sure, you’re nice enough looking, and you obviously work out.  You’re in great shape for the alien apocalypse.  But Emily – the final stage of the human genetics programme meant to produce the ideal general – Emily’s been training in hand to hand combat non-stop since she was four years old.  She’s built like an Olympic gymnast. That whole ‘fight,’ she was just showing off – her form, her strength, her endurance. She doesn’t need to prove she can beat you.  Tessa knew from the beginning which one of you would win in a real battle. She was just trying to show that she didn’t need to beat you.  And it worked, I guess – you just couldn’t figure it out.”

She couldn’t stop, on a roll, gathering energy from horrified stares and clenched fists.  “I mean, Tessa has literally died for Emily. Not ‘Laerian’ died, really died, to save her from drowning.  And Emily? Look at the two of them, when they were younger.  Emily hangs on every word out of Tessa’s mouth.  She might as well hang the fucking stars for all she knows. I don’t need to drain the Nymea or interrogate your little sister to find that out, it literally just takes a good fifteen minutes of observation. And the older two, well, come on. How many ‘fuck you’ ‘anytime’ jokes can two people make before you think there’s got to be something going on?”

Tessa’s hands were balled into fists.  She looked about two seconds away from smashing Morning’s wolfy grin in through the holo. Emily looked like she was ready to pass out, panicked and unsure of herself. David? David looked baffled, as if a puzzle were fitting itself together.  Tristan was trying frantically to sever the connection with no result – Morning had her people keeping it together on the other line.  Around the room, expressions ran from shocked to disgusted to absolutely confounded.

Morning surveyed the room on the screen, basking in the carnage she’d created. “So yeah, Emily.  I don’t think you guys get along that well.”

The screen went dark.


End file.
